School's Out For Summer
It's that time of the year. College students are ramping up for the summer once again. Some of them are hoping to land a summer internship in the internet marketing arena - make a bit of money, get some credits towards graduation and maybe even LEARN how it's working out in the real world.
We've been looking through a number of resumes lately as we try to find the right intern for our summer program and thought it would be helpful to share what we feel are the top 5 skills any prospective intern should be sure to have. These may not be exactly the skills that all companies look for but if you have them and are looking for a summer internship you just might be in the running for ours!
1. Web Skills
This one seems like a given these days, but you'd be surprised. It definitely needs to be included in our top 5. If you are going to be involved with a team working on internet marketing campaigns you must have at least some working knowledge and experience with basic web languages and how to code with them. The basics we look for are:
HTML
CSS
If you aren't sure what those even stand for you may want to grab one of the "For Dummies" books at your local bookstore. I don't say that condescendingly at all, I promise. I built this entire company by reading those books first and I firmly belive they are an invaluable resource for learning any of these disciplines.
The reason for knowing these basics is that along with crafting killer slogans, landing pages or press releases, you will need to know how to format them and insert them into blogs and webpages. While some content management systems are better than others, most have moments of struggle with their online text editing. If you run into issues with formatting, you'll need to know how to get under the hood and tune her up!
2. Analyze Everything!
One of the essential components of marketing is measuring results. In the end, clients really don't care how clever or pretty a campaign appears to be on the surface. They want to see how it's performing over time. This requires analysis. Be sure you are able to navigate around Google's analytics and understand what it is you're actually looking at.
Be sure that your resume shows examples of statistical analysis in some way, shape or form. If you haven't taken any statistical analysis classes yet, be sure you do in the future. It's a big part of your upcoming career.
3. Be Marketing Savvy
Again.. is this too obvious? Regardless, it needs to be said. Most companies don't have the time to teach you marketing. They are most likely hiring you to actually perform marketing tasks. While you don't have to be a seasoned veteran by any means, you do need to understand what sells. As you can read in this Hubspot article on graduating marketing students, things change very quickly so your textbooks are likely somewhat out of date already. Don't rest only on what you learn in class.
Pay attention in your every day life to how things are marketed to you. You're not only a marketing student, you're also a consumer that is constantly being influenced by marketing. Don't just drive by that billboard on the highway. Pick it apart. Figure out what works and what doesn't. Billboards, as an example, are huge calls to action (CTA's). You'll be creating many of those in your career so don't miss out on life's lessons. Be observant!
4. Show Us Your Hungry
If you don't have every single skill honed perfectly don't worry. There's another characterstic that can cover for them - hunger. If you show us an insatiable appetite for learning, absorbing, growing and producing results we can show you those skills you need work on.
We can't expect you to have every advanced marketing skill at your fingertips and we don't. We hope you'll gain from our experience and we hope to gain from your fresh approach to our existing business model. This should be a win/win situation for the intern as well as the company.
5. Be Honest
We love seeing that you have been an active member of many organizations at your school, but don't try to fluff them up to impress us. Trust us, when you get in here and start working we're gonna know whether or not you exaggereated any of your skill set. Be honest, accurate and transparent with your experience. We'll give you experience that you'll be able to add condifently when you revise your resume next time. We aren't looking for the most perfect intern in the world, just the right one for our needs.
While this doesn't cover everything about interning with us, it should give you a good idea of the kind of candidate we are searching for. If you feel you are a good match for us and are looking for an internship, be sure to contact us today. You never know!
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